The spread of Bharatavarsha throughout the world is a fact for those who study History with an open mind.
All the languages of India had/has a agreat role to play in the evolution of Santana Dharma.
As I know only Sanskrit and Tamil, I am writing on the basis of information available in these languages.
Wish I knew more languages!
Flags Of Tamil Kings.
Tamil ,as one reads History and Sanskrit from Indian sources, would know, it runs parallel to Sanskrit.
I have written quite a few articles on this subject.
The Tamils were followers of Sanatana Dharam and i m of the view that the Sanatana Dharma of the Dravidas,the South of India,preceded the one in North India.
Please refer my posts on this.
I shall be posting a series on Sanatana Dharma Shiva where I shall deal with this subject in detail.
The Kingdom of the Tamils extended beyond the shores both in the West and the East.
Many Western civilisations have their Tamil roots.
It seems the East has its share too.
I have written articles on Sri Lanka,Indonesia, Malaysia,Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Japan, Fiji,New Zealand and Australian
connection to Tamils/Sanatana Dharma.
The first Vietnam King seems to have been a Tamil Pandya King, Thirumaran.
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The first king in Vietnam was known by the name Sri Maran. Translated in to Tamil it is Thiru Maran. We knew several Pandya kings by these names through inscriptions and Tamil Cankam literature. The oldest Sanskrit inscription discovered in Vietnam mentions the name Sri Maran. Unfortunately we did not get the complete inscription. Most of it is not legible.
The inscription is known as Vo-Chanh Inscription. It was inscribed on a rock as two parts. This is about the donation made by the family of the king Sri Maran. We have fifteen lines on one part of the rock and seven more lines on the other side. Of these only nine lines are readable. Scholars who took a copy of the inscription say the poetry part is in Vasantha Thilaka metre in Sanskrit and rest is in prose.
The king donated all his property to the people who were close to him and ordered that it should be honoured by the future kings. The inscription ends abruptly. But we could read the words ‘Sri Mara raja kula’ very clearly. Though we couldn’t get much information about this king from other sources, Chinese historians confirmed that the Hindu empire that existed in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia started with Sri Maran.
Chinese historians named Thiru Maran as Kiu Lien and said that he captured Champa following a revolt. Champa was part of modern Vietnam. The French scholars who excavated most of the South East Asian sites have identified Kiu Lien as Sri Maran. All the kings’ names who followed Sri Maran were in Chinese style and beyond recognition. The revolt started in AD 132 against Chinese and Sri Maran ruled from AD 192.But the kings’ names end with Fan (in Chinese) which is nothing but Varman. As a surprising co incidence we have both Varman and Maran names in the Pandyan Kingdom in Tamil Nadu.
There are more than 800 Sanskrit inscriptions in South East Asia. Mula Varman was another king whose inscription was found in the thick jungle of Borneo (Indonesia).
Now let us look at the Tamil literature to get some corroborative evidence. The last king who ruled during the second Tamil Academy (Second Tamil Sangam) was Thiru Maran. When a tsunami struck his capital he moved his capital to the present day Madurai. May be he or his representative might have ruled Vietnam.
Velvikkudi Copper Plate inscription also mentions Thiru Maran, Sri Maran as titles for a few kings. The king who ruled during the days of Tolkappiyar also had the title Thiru. He was Nilam Tharu Thiruvil Pandyan.
Another early Champa king was Bhadravarman, who ruled from 349-361CE. His capital was the citadel of Simhapura or ‘Lion City,’ now called Tra Kieu. Badravarman built a number of temples, conquered his rivals, ruled well and in his final years abdicated his throne and spent his last days in India on the banks of the Ganges River.
Historic Champa was divided into five regions. Indrapura (present-day Dong Duong) served as the religious center of the kingdom; Amaravati is the present day Quong Nam province; Vijya is now Cha Ban; Kauthara is the modern Nha Trang; and Panduranga is known today simply as Phan. Panduranga was the last Cham territory to be conquered by the Sino-Vietnamese.
That the Sanatana Dharma spread world-wide is a fact.
Equally true is that the Varnas of Hindus spread (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras).
The Kingdoms of Vietnam , Bali,Cambodia, and Indonesia trace their ancestry to Sanatana Dharma.
Fiji has Manu’s Portrait in the Parliamentary Hall.
Brahmins’ Attitude.
Australian Aborigines perform Shiva’s Third Eye dance and some of them wear Srivaishnava marks on their forehead even today.
Lord Rama’s Kingdom was spread over this area.
Tamil Kings who were the followers of Santana Dharma also conquered these Nations ans established their rule there.
The left their mark, social, cultural and religious.
This may by noticed by looking at the Hindu Temples in these regions and the cultural similarities in the region.
These intermingled Buddhism, which arrived here later and what we have a curious mixture of Hindu and Buddhist practices in the area.
However the Brahmin group maintained a `distinct identity and they still live there.
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The Champa civilization was located in the more southern part of what is today CentralVietnam, and was a highly Indianized Hindu Kingdom, practicing a form of ShaiviteHinduism brought by sea from India. Mỹ Sơn, a Hindu temple complex built by the Champa is still standing in Quang Nam province, in Vietnam.
The Champa were conquered by theVietnamese and today are one of the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. Hindu temples are known as Bimong in Cham language and the priests are known as Halau Tamunay Ahier.
The Balamon Hindu Cham people of Vietnam make up only 25% of the overall Cham population (the other 75% are Muslims or Cham Bani). Of these, 70% belong to the Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste (pronounced in Vietnamese as “Satrias”), and claim to be the descendants of the Champa Empire. A sizeable minority of the Balamon Hindu Cham are Brahmins.
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In any case a sizable proportion of the Balamon Hindu Cham are considered Brahmins.
Hindu temples known as Bimong in the Cham language and the priests Halau Tamunay Ahier.
The exact number of Tamil Hindus in Vietnam are not published in Government census, but there are estimated to be at least 50,000 Balamon Hindus, with another 4,000 Hindus living in Ho Chi Minh City; most of whom are of Indian (Tamil) or of mixed Indian-Vietnamese descent. The Mariamman Temple is one of the most notable Tamil Hindu temples in Ho Chi Minh City. Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan Provinces are where most of the Cham ethnic group (~65%) in Vietnam reside according to the last population census. Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) in Ninh Thuan numbered 32,000 in 2002 inhabiting 15 of 22 Cham villages.[27] If this population composition is typical for the Cham population of Vietnam as a whole then approximately 60% of Chams in Vietnam are Hindu
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